Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I Quotes

“He who reaches them without having done wrong
Will exist there like a god.
Free-striding like the lords forever!”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“When a man remains over after death,
His deeds are set beside him as treasure, And being yonder lasts forever.
A fool is who does what they reprove!”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“Beware of punishing wrongfully,
Do not kill, it does not serve you.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“Do justice, then you endure on earth; Calm the weeper, don’t oppress the widow,”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHOTEP
Epilogue
Part II

The fool who does not hear,
He can do nothing at all;
He sees knowledge in ignorance,
Usefulness in harmfulness.
He does all that one detests
And is blamed for it each day;
He lives on that by which one dies.
His food is distortion of speech.
His sort is known to the officials,
Who say: "A living death each day.”
One passes over his doings,
Because of his many daily troubles.

A son who hears is a follower of Horus,
It goes well with him when he has heard.
When he is old has reached veneration.
He will speak likewise to his children,
Renewing the teaching of his father.
Every man teaches as he acts,
He will speak to the children,
So that they will speak to their children:
Set an example, don’t give offense,
If justice stands firm your children will live.

As to the first who gets into trouble,
When they see (it) people will say:
“That is just like him.”
And will say to what they hear:
"That’s just like him too.”

To see everyone is to satisfy the many,
Riches are useless without them.
Don’t take a word and then bring it back,
Don’t put one thing in place of another.
Beware of loosening the cords in you,
Lest a wise man say:
“Listen, if you want to endure in the mouth of the hearers.
Speak after you have mastered the craft!”
If you speak to good purpose.
All your affairs will be in place.

Conceal your heart, control your mouth.
Then you will be known among the officials;
Be quite exact before your lord.
Act so that one will say to him: "He’s the son of that one.”
And those who hear it will say:
“Blessed is he to whom he was born!”
Be deliberate when you speak,
So as to say things that count;
Then the officials who listen will say:
“How good is what comes from his mouth!”
Act so that your lord will say of you:
“How good is he whom his father taught;
When he came forth from his body.
He told him all that was in (his) mind,
And he does even more than he was told,”

Lo, the good son, the gift of god,
Exceeds what is told him by his lord,
He will do right when his heart is straight.
As you succeed me, sound in your body.
The king content with all that was done.
May you obtain (many) years of life!
Not small is what I did on earth,
I had one hundred and ten years of life
As gift of the king,
Honors exceeding those of the ancestors,
By doing justice for the king.
Until the state of veneration!”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHOTEP
Epilogue
Part I

If you listen to my sayings.
All your affairs will go forward;
In their truth resides their value,
Their memory goes on in the speeds of men,
Because of the worth of their precepts;
If every word is carried on.
They will not perish in this land.
If advice ıs given for the good,
The great will speak accordingly;
It is teaching a man to speak to posterity,
He who hears it becomes a master-hearer;
It is good to speak to posterity,
It will listen to it.

If a good example is set by him who leads,
He will be beneficent for ever,
His wisdom being for all time.
The wise feeds his ba with what endures,
So that it is happy with, him on earth.
The wise is known by his wisdom,
The great by his good actions;
His heart matches his tongue.
His lips are straight when he speaks;
He has eyes that see,
His ears are made to hear what will profit his son.
Acting with truth he is free of falsehood.

Useful is hearing to a son who hears;
If hearing enters the hearer,
The hearer becomes a listener.
Hearing well is speaking well.
Useful is hearing to one who hears,
Hearing is better than all else,
It creates good will.
How good for a son to grasp his father’s words,
He will reach old age through them.

He who hears is beloved of god,
He whom god hates does not hear.
The heart makes of its owner a hearer or non-hearer,
Man’s heart is his life-prosperity-health!
The hearer is one who hears what is said.
He who loves to hear is one who does what is said.
How good for a son to listen to his father.
How happy is he to whom it is said:
“The son, he pleases as a master of hearing.”
The hearer of whom this is said,
He is well-endowed
And honored by his father;
His remembrance is in the mouth of the living.
Those on earth and those who will be.

If a man’s son accepts his father's words.
No plan of his will go wrong.
Teach your son to be a hearer,
One who will be valued by the nobles;
One who guides his speech by what he was told,
One regarded as a hearer.
This son excels, his deeds stand out.
While failure follows him who hears not.
The wise wakes early to his lasting gain,
While the foot is hard pressed.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHOTEP
Part V

Know your helpers, then you prosper,
Don’t be mean toward your friends,
They are one’s watered field,
And greater then one’s riches.
For what belongs to one belongs to another.
The character of a son-of-man is profit to him;
Good nature is a memorial,

Punish firmly, chastise soundly;
Then repression of crime becomes an example;
Punishment except for crime
Turns the complainer into an enemy.

If you take to wife a Spnt
Who is joyful and known by her town,
If she is fickle and likes the moment.
Do not reject her, let her eat,”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHOTEP
Part III

Report your commission without faltering,
Give your advice in your master’s council.
If he is fluent in his speech,
It will not be hard for the envoy to report,
Nor will he be answered, "Who is he to know it ?”
As to the master, his affairs will fail
If he plans to punish him for it.
He should be silent upon (hearing): "I have told.”

If you are a man who leads.
Whose authority reaches wide,
You should do outstanding things,
Remember the day that comes after.
No strife will occur in the midst of honors,
But where the crocodile enters hatred arises.

If you are a man who leads.
Listen calmly to the speech of one who pleads;
Don’t stop him from purging his body
Of that which he planned to tell.
A man in distress wants to pour out his heart
More than that his case be won.
About him who stops a plea
One says: “Why does he reject it ?”
Not all one pleads for can be granted,
But a good hearing soothes the heart.

If you want friendship to endure
In the house you enter
As master, brother, or friend,
In whatever place you enter,
Beware of approaching the women!
Unhappy is the place where it is done.
Unwelcome is he who intrudes on them.
A thousand men are turned away from their good:
A short moment like a dream,
Then death comes for having known them.
Poor advice is “shoot the opponent,”
When one goes to do it the heart rejects it.
He who fails through lust of them,
No affair of his can prosper.

If you want a perfect conduct,
To be free from every evil,
Guard against the vice of greed:
A grievous sickness without cure,
There is no treatment for it.
It embroils fathers, mothers,
And the brothers of the mother,
It parts wife from husband;
It is a compound of all evils,
A bundle of all hateful things.
That man endures whose rule is rightness,
Who walks a straight line;
He will make a will by it,
The greedy has no tomb.

Do not be greedy in the division.
Do not covet more than your share;
Do not be greedy toward your kin.
The mild has a greater claim than the harsh.
Poor is he who shuns his kin,
He is deprived of 'interchange'
Even a little of what is craved
Turns a quarreler into an amiable man.

When you prosper and found your house,
And love your wife with ardor,
Fill her belly, clothe her back,
Ointment soothes her body.
Gladden her heart as long as you live,
She is a fertile held for her lord.
Do not contend with her in court,
Keep her from power, restrain her —
Her eye is her storm when she gazes —
Thus will you make her stay in your house.

Sustain your friends with what you have,
You have it by the grace of god;
Of him who fails to sustain his friends
One says, “a selfish ka".
One plans the morrow but knows not what will be,
The ( right) ka is the ka by which one is sustained.
If praiseworthy deeds are done,
Friends will say, “welcome!”
One does not bring supplies to town,
One brings friends when there is need.

Do not repeat calumny.
Nor should you listen to it,
It is the spouting of the hot-bellied.
Report a thing observed, not heard,
If it is negligible, don’t say anything.
He who is before you recognizes worth.
lf a seizure is ordered and carried out,
Hatred will arise against him who seizes;
Calumny is like a dream against which one covers the face.

If you are a man of worth,
Who sits in his master’s council.
Concentrate on excellence,
Your silence is better than chatter.
Speak when you know you have a solution,
It is the skilled who should speak in council;
Speaking is harder than all other work.
He who understands it makes it serve.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHOTEP

Instruction of the Mayor of the city, the Vizier Ptahhotep, under the Majesty of King Isesi, who lives for all eternity. The mayor of the city, the vizier Ptahhotep, said:

O king, my lord!
Age is here, old age arrived.
Feebleness came, weakness grows,
Childtike one sleeps all day.
Eyes are dim, ears deaf.
Strength is waning through weariness,
The mouth, silenced, speaks not,
The heart, void, recalls not the past,
The bones ache throughout.
Good has become evil, all taste is gone,
What age does to people is evil in everything.
The nose, clogged, breathes not,
Painful are standing and sitting.

May this servant be ordered to make a staff of old age,
So as to teil him the words of those who heard,
The ways of the ancestors,
Who have listened to the gods.
May such be done for you.
So that strife may be banned from the people,
And the Two Shores may serve you!
Said the majesty of this god:
Instruct him then in the sayings of the past,
May he become a model for the children of the great,
May obedience enter him,
And the devotion of him who speaks to him,
No one is born wise.

Beginning of the formulations of excellent discourse spoken by the Prince, Count, God's Father, God's beloved, Eldest Son of the King, of his body, Mayor of the city and Vizier, Ptahhotep, in instructing the ignorant in knowledge and in the standard of excellent discourse, as profit for him who will hear, as woe to him who would neglect them. He spoke to his son:

Don’t be proud of your knowledge.
Consult the ignorant and the wise;
The limits of art are not reached,
No artist’s skills are perfect;
Good speech is more hidden than greenstone,
Yet may be found among maids at the grindstones.

If you meet a disputant in action,
A powerful man, superior to you.
Fold your arms, bend your back,
To flout him will not make him agree with you.
Make little of the evil speech
By not opposing him while he's in action;
He will be called an ignoramus,
Your self-control will match his pile (of words).

If you meet a disputant in action
Who is your equal, on your level,
You will make your worth exceed his by silence,
While he is speaking evilly,
There will be much talk by the hearers.
Your name will be good in the mind of the magistrates.

If you meet a disputant in action,
A poor man, not your equal.
Do not attack him because he is weak,
Let him alone, he will confute himself.
Do not answer him to relieve your heart,
Do not vent yourself against your opponent,
Wretched is he who injures a poor man,
One will wish to do what you desire.
You will beat him through the magistrates’ reproof.

If you are a man who leads,
Who controls the affairs of the many,
Seek out every beneficent deed,
That your conduct may be blameless.
Great is justice, lasting in effect,
Unchallenged since the time of Osiris.
One punishes the transgressor of laws,
Though the greedy overlooks this;
Baseness may seize riches,
Yet crime never lands its wares;
In the end it is justice that lasts,
Man says: “It is my father's ground.”

Do not scheme against people,
God punishes accordingly:
If a man says: “I shall live by it,”
He will lack bread for his mouth.
If a man says: “I shall be rich'
He will have to say: “My cleverness has snared me.”
If he says: “I will snare for myself,”
He will be unable to say: “I snared for my profit.”
If a man says: "I will rob someone,”
He will end being given to a stranger.
People’s schemes do not prevail,
God’s command is what prevails;
Live then in the midst of peace,
What they give comes by itself.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“The gatekeeper comes out to you,
He grasps your hand,
Takes you into heaven, to your father Geb.
He rejoices at your coming,
lives you his hands,
Kisses you, caresses you,

Utterance 373
Antechamber, West Wall
The king is raised from his tomb”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“May you cross the sky united in the dark,
May you rise in Iightland, the place in which you shine!
Horus, go proclaim to the powers of the east
And their spirits:
This Unas comes, a spirit indestructible,
Whom he wishes to live will live,
Whom he wishes to die will die!

UNAS PYRAMID TEXTS
Utterance 217
Sarcophagus Chamber, South Wall
The king joins the sun-god”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“A man’s mouth can save him.
His speech makes one forgive him.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“The worthy attendant said: Take heart, my lord!”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“Though one praises all the gods,
Birds will not come down to deserts.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“He who grieved goes out in joy.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“Lo, none is allowed to take his goods with him,
Lo, none who departs comes back again!”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“Do not tell lies against your mother,
the magistrates abhor it.
The descendant who does what is good.
His actions all emulate the past.
Do not consort with a rowdy.
It harms you when one hears of it.
If you have eaten three loaves, drunk two jugs of beer, and the belly is not sated, restrain it!
When another eats, don't stand there, beware of rushing to the table!”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“The descendant who does what is good.
His actions all emulate the past.
Do not consort with a rowdy.
It harms you when one hears of it.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“If you leave the schoolhouse when midday is called and go roaming in the streets, all will scold you in the end.
When an official sends you with a message,
Tell it as he told it,
Don’t omit, don’t add to it.
He who neglects to praise, his name will not endure ; he who is skilled in all his conduct, from him nothing is hidden, he is not 'opposed anywhere.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“When you walk behind officials,
Follow at a proper distance.
When you enter a man's house.
And he’s busy with someone before you,
Sit with your hand over your mouth.
Do not ask him for anything,
Only do as he tells you,
Beware of rushing to the table
Be weighty and very dignified,
Do not speak of secret things,
Who hides his thought shields himself.
Do not say things recklessly,
When you sit with one who’s hostile.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“I’ll tell you also other things, so as to teach you knowledge.
Such as; if a quarrel breaks out,do not approach the contenders!
If you are chided and don’t know how to repel the heat, call the listeners to witness and delay the answer.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“I have seen many beatings
Set your heart on books!
I watched those seized for labor
There’s nothing better than books!”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“Be not heavy, nor yet light,
Do not tarry, nor yet hurry.
Be not partial, nor listen to desire.
Do not avert your face from one you know,
Be not blind to one you have seen,
Do not rebuff one who beseeches you. Abandon this slackness.
Let your speech be heard.
Act for him who would act for you.
Do not listen to everyone,
Summon a man to his rightful cause!
A sluggard has no yesterday;
(no) one deaf to justice has no friend;
the greedy has no holiday.
When the accuser is a wretch, and the wretch becomes a pleader, his opponent is a killer. Here I have been pleading with you, and you have not listened to it.
I shall go and plead about you to Anubis!”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“Now this peasant came to petition him a ninth time; he said: “O high steward, my lord! The tongue is men’s stand-balance. It is the balance that detects deficiency. Punish him who should be punished, and none shall equal your rectitude. When falsehood walks it goes astray.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“Keep away from wrongdoing!
When goodness is good it is truly good.
For justice is for eternity:
It enters the graveyard with its doer.
When he is buried and earth enfolds him.
His name does not pass from the earth;
He is remembered because of goodness,
That is the rule of god’s command.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“Now this peasant came petition him an eighth time; he said: “0 high steward, my lord! Men fall low through greed. The rapacious man lacks success ; his success is loss. Though you are greedy it does nothing for you. Though you steal you do not profit. Let a man defend his rightful cause!”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“I have washed my soiled linen.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“As a dam is breached and water escapes..”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“If law is laid waste and order destroyed, no poor man can survive:
when he is robbed, justice does not address him.”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

“You should be the model for all men,
But your affairs are crooked!
The standard for all men cheats the whole land!
The vintner of evil waters his plot with crimes,
Until his plot sprouts falsehood,
His estate flows with crimes!”
― Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms